Cupertino did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment, but gave TechCrunch its standard statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

The Novauris team, which includes CEO Yoon Kim and co-founders Melvyn Hunt and John Bridle, have been working with the tech giant since last fall, developing improvements for the Siri personal assistant that comes with all iOS-enabled devices.

Novauris could not be reached for comment. Hunt, however, confirmed the acquisition to TechCrunch, adding that the company is "no longer an active entity."

But Novauris, which was co-founded by Dragon Systems founder James Baker, has been developing large-vocabulary, automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology for years, even earning patents in the U.S. and abroad, according to TechCrunch. The firm has also licensed its services to major international corporations.

Apple's Siri already relies on ASR company Nuance, which also developed the Nina mobile customer service app. But as TechCrunch pointed out, these companies are interconnected: In 2005, Nuance merged with ScanSoft, which had acquired the rights to the Dragon product line.

Cupertino appears to also have its eye on Renesas SP Drivers, a joint venture between Renesas, Sharp, and Taiwan-based Powerchip. The tech giant is reportedly in talks to acquire the chipmaking unit with the intent of bolstering its smartphone display designs.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.
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